


The Omen

by Featherhead



Category: Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Genre: Can't tag all the characters, Gen, That'll spoil the fic!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-29 19:43:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13933968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Featherhead/pseuds/Featherhead
Summary: The crow visited every day, bringing tiny shiny trinkets. But today it had a note instead.





	The Omen

All Arumat's life, through all his battles, there's always been a crow, with an odd reddish sheen to its feathers and laughing gray eyes, lurking nearby.  
  
Sometimes it just sits around and watches him as he fights, head tilted in such a way that Arumat can almost see its nonexistent sly grin. Sometimes it brings tiny shiny trinkets that- _somehow_ \- are always exactly the item or clue he needs at that moment.  
  
More often it laughs at him, head thrown back and eyes half-closed in a full-bodied joy that...birds just aren't supposed to have. It's a raucous noise, but...somehow Arumat enjoys it. Even if it _is_ at his expense, due to some prank the bird has played on him.  
  
He's never quite figured out how it manages to find him on so many different planets over the years. And how does it even manage to appear on his ships? There's no way for the bird to sneak aboard and hide...and how does it always vanish the moment he takes eyes off it? Still, Arumat is grateful, because now the bird's started _warning_ him as battles with the unknown enemy increase.  
  
It still brings trinkets, and he's gotten better at reading the cryptic clues they represent. He's gotten better at reading the bird itself, too, and he can see its increasing restlessness when it appears. He reads its anxiety in the wings that are never still, the ruffled feathers, the jerky glances at something Arumat can't see.  
  
He's getting worried about what might be coming. Because something _is_ coming, he's sure of it.  
  
He's even more sure of it- and not surprised in the least- the day the crow appears with an actual note.  
  
He reads it twice, looks up, and feels an odd sadness when he sees the bird already gone.  
  
He knows it's not coming back, as he returns his gaze to the note.  
  
 _See ya on the other side of the star ocean._  
  
Wordlessly, he crumples it in his fist.  
  
 _We'll see about that_ , he thinks to himself, before preparing for the coming battle.  


* * *

Life is pain, and his aching muscles and stinging injuries scream at him as Arumat claws his way back to consciousness. He doesn't _want_ to, but he's got no choice. _Something_ is prodding him, and he needs to pry an eyelid open so he can glare the one responsible into oblivion.  
  
It takes a monumental effort to accomplish the task, not that he'll ever admit it. He's met with a blurry wash of colors, and the overhead lights stabbing him in the eye, and he closes it again with a quiet groan of protest.  
  
Abruptly something blocks the light- someone is leaning over him- and he risks opening his eye again to try for that glare again.  
  
But then both eyes pop open as he's met with familiar laughing gray eyes, framed by bright red hair.  
  
"Hello there," their owner greets him, expression clearly relieved. "Glad to see you still among the living. How are you feeling? Other than feeling like you went ten rounds in a hatchet fight and forgot your hatchet."  
  
This eerily familiar stranger is speaking Eldarian, Arumat realizes. The accent's not perfect, and he stumbles over the more complicated sounds, but it's still understandable. And clearly Arumat's brain hasn't caught up with the rest of him in coherency, because all he can answer with is a muttered growl of "Damn bird."  
  
That sets the stranger off laughing, head rocking back eyes half-closed, and Arumat _stares_.  
  
"Who _are_ you?" Arumat demands as the stranger's laughter eases.  
  
"Me?" The stranger turns a sly grin on him. "I'm Crowe F. Almedio, captain of the SRF Aquila. We pulled you out of your ship after the battle, just before it exploded."  
  
...clearly Arumat is suffering some mental trauma, a concussion or something, that's making him see coincidences that aren't there. There's no way this person and the bird could be connected. It's _impossible_.  
  
But this 'Crowe's' next words stop him cold.  
  
"Told you I'd see you on the other side of the star ocean."


End file.
